.....It is time we realized that crimes without victims are like debts without creditors. They do not even exist. Any person who lies awake at night worrying about the private pleasures of other consenting adults has more than just too much time on his hands; he has some unjustifiable beliefs about the nature of right and wrong...........— Sam Harris (1967 - ), author, neuroscientist, skeptic. The End of Faith: Religion, Terror, and the Future of Reason (2004).

.....It is so much easier to assume than to prove; it is so much less painful to believe than to doubt; there is such a charm in the repose of prejudice, when no discordant voice jars upon the harmony of belief; there is such a thrilling pang when cherished dreams are scattered, and old creeds abandoned, that it is not surprising that men close their eyes to the unwelcome light...........— W(illiam) E(dward) H(artpole) Lecky (1838-1903), Irish essayist, historian. History of the Rise and Influence of the Spirit of Rationalism in Europe, Vol. II, Second Edition (1865), pages 104-105.

.....Scientists have discovered that more elaborate false memories can be instilled in subjects with relative ease, both intentionally and unintentionally. In one much-publicized study, Elizabeth Loftus and her colleagues at the University of California at Irvine were able to convince nearly one-third of their subjects that they had been lost in a shopping mall as a child. (Prior interviews with close relatives confirmed that the subjects—aged eighteen to fifty-three—had never actually had such an experience.) More controversial examples of false memories have involved recollections of alleged physical or sexual abuse that were "repressed" and later said to be recovered with the help of a therapist—often using hypnosis, "guided imagery," or other controversial practices...........— Dan Falk (1966 - ), Canadian science journalist, broadcaster, and author. In Search of Time: The Science of a Curious Dimension (2008).

.....In every age the vilest specimens of human nature are to be found among demagogues...........— Thomas Babington MacAulay (1800-1859), British poet, historian, essayist, Whig politician. History of England (1848).

.....It is striking that Socrates and Jesus, the two most central figures in the philosophical and religious traditions of the West, were both executed. Clearly, challenging conventional wisdom is often experienced as offensive and threatening...........—Marcus Borg (1942 - ), American Biblical scholar, author. Meeting Jesus Again for the First Time (1994).